Regarding fire detection, a fire detection system comprises an electronic central monitoring station and a detection network that communicates with the electronic control unit including one or more alarm triggering devices or fire detection points. These alarm triggering devices or detection points may comprise automatic fire detectors able to sense a phenomenon representative of a fire and manual fire detectors (manual triggers), which can be operated by a person discovering a fire situation. Alarm triggering devices are in general distributed in the area or areas to be monitored and connected to the central monitoring station. The electronic control unit makes it possible to monitor the area or areas to be monitored by means of the alarm triggering devices and to broadcast an alarm when a fire is detected.
The alarm triggering devices are connected to the central monitoring station so as to allow information to be exchanged between the control unit and said alarm triggering devices, so that the control unit is kept informed of the status of each element of the detection network and, if applicable, so as to control them.
Fire detection systems are known in which the alarm triggering devices are connected to the control unit by means of a wireless connection. To ensure reliable and safe monitoring, a high-quality link between each alarm triggering device and the control unit is important so as to enable information exchanges. However, the quality of the link can be degraded, for example, because of the presence of obstacles in the radio communication path between said alarm triggering device and the control unit.
A radio communications fault can be very dangerous when a fire breaks out, since the alarm triggering device would be unable to communicate with the central monitoring station to signal that the alarm has been triggered and the presence of a fire.
Positioning the triggering devices in relation to the central monitoring station is a very important factor to ensure a high quality wireless connection between the two elements. Such positioning, carried out during the installation of the fire detection system, is complicated to achieve as it requires the quality of the wireless communications with the control unit to be checked. This is a cause of wasted time, significant costs overruns and risks of badly-realized installations.
The same drawbacks as those described above can also be found when an intrusion detection system or an operational malfunction detection system for technical facilities is under consideration.